Music Review: Key Chorale creates grandeur with 'Elijah' oratorio
By Albert H. CohenCorrespondent
Mar 11, 2019 at 11:25 AM Mar 11, 2019 at 8:34 PM
Chorus combines with soloists, musicians from Sarasota Orchestra
Felix Mendelssohn was quite a teenager. By the time he was 19, he was a virtuoso pianist, successful composer — his brilliant Octet was written when he was 16 — and had begun a conducting career.
Yet his most lasting contribution to music was the discovery of a work from a neglected composer dead 79 years and his production and performance of it. It was the St. Matthew Passion of J.S. Bach. The audience reaction led to a massive effort to find more of his music, and he has been popular ever since.
Mendelssohn composed two oratorios, both deeply influenced by the style of Bach and Handel, but using the Romantic-era musical idioms of the early 19th century. "Elijah," the most beloved of the two, was performed on Sunday by the Key Chorale and members of the Sarasota Orchestra at First United Methodist Church.
Joseph Caulkins, who conducted his choir along with five soloists, made a welcome half-dozen cuts to the score which were arranged so well that the flow of the music and story was uninterrupted.
This work calls for a full symphony orchestra. Here, 34 musicians were used. Since all the brass (10 in all) were essential, the depth of the string section was a casualty. As a result, there were too many moments when the sound was unbalanced. Space considerations were an understandable factor. The resulting loss of orchestral depth was unfortunate.
Soloists represent various characters from the Biblical story of the prophet Elijah, such as Jezebel, Ahab and Obadiah. In Baroque style, they sing recitatives and arias. The chorus responds as the people, reacting to their words.
Elijah was delivered by bass-baritone Jamal Sarikoki, whose rich and resonant voice filled the large space with beautifully expressive tone and excellent diction: every word could be understood.
Jason Ferrante, tenor, Ruthie Nelson, soprano and Robin Bier, contralto supported the story as it evolved. It would be difficult to find a quartet of soloists as uniformly clear and eloquent as this one. They provided many magical moments singing as soloists and in combinations of two, three and four.
There is a small role for a child, nicely delivered by Annika Guyer, a sixth-grader at Sarasota Middle School.
At its core, this is a work where the chorus does all the (musical) heavy lifting. In the process, many memorable moments occur. Caulkins produced a wonderful effect with a powerful crescendo in "Thanks be to God." In "The Fire Descends from Heaven," he got his 100 voices to provide a control of dynamics that was breathtaking.
Mendelssohn clearly made "Elijah" an homage to Bach, going so far in "It is Enough" to emulate the instruments and structure it as a da capo aria (translated as "it ends back at the head"). In several choral sections, one also heard the composer looking backward a bit too much.
Yet, in the totality of its conception, as presented here, the Key Chorale made the grandeur of the music dominate, and the soloists added so much that the result was a afternoon of music making leading to a feeling of exaltation. The roar of approval from the capacity audience made clear how deeply they were affected.